1. Marion County Public Schools NEWS from New Dimension Media New Dimension Media is proud to support Marion County Public School educators in their continued use of CCC! Streaming Media. The Weekly Connection A weekly email communication offering teachers tips and techniques on creative ways to integrate digital content. Numerous downloads and supporting documents are made available for teachers to have step-by-step instructions for completing the suggested ideas. This booklet is a summary of all Weekly Connection communications that have been sent to CCC! users over the first semester of 2011. Prepared by: Jo-Ann Kratz Senior Vice President Curriculum and Technology jkratz@cccstreaming.com jkratz@cccstreaming.com 312-397-2156 (office) | 847-340-0562 (cell)

2. Weekly Connections and Teachable Moments Table of Contents Teachable Moment – Sept. 13, 2011 (Page 5) *This Teachable Moment had two attachments. BBC Story: Roald Dahl Corresponding Writing Activity CCC! and Using RSS Feeds. Teachable Moment – Sept. 19, 2011 (Page 6) *This Teachable Moment had one attachment. What Causes Trees to Change Color? Issue 1: September 25, 2011 (Page 7-8) *Issue 1 had no attachments. Tony Vincent's Learning In Hand http://learninginhand.com/http://learninginhand.com/ Veteran's Day Bookmark New Lesson Plan: Perspective and Perception Third Party Software That Can Make YOUR Teaching Mobile – Doceri Kratz' Design Studio Professional Development Workshops - 21st Century Make and Take It Quote of the Week: Related to genius/storytelling Issue 2: September 30, 2011 (Page 9-10) *Issue 2 had 3 attachments. Red Ribbon Week Playlist Halloween Playlist Columbus Celebration Challenge! (CCC!) Shout Out to CCC! Teacher – Caledonia, MN The American Math Challenge Bloom's Taxonomy Tied to Technology Professional Development Services from New Dimension Media Issue 3: October, 2011 (Page 11-13) *Issue 3 had 1 attachment. Sputnik Launches America Into a National Week of Shame Art Teachers: Saint Louis Museum Reunites Monet's Water Lilies Let's Get Technical: How to Convert a Long URL Into a Short URL Great APP for iPad2 – AVPlayerHD New Lesson Plan: Weather Adventure Shout Out to Buffalo Public Schools (NY) Road Trip Details Professional Development Info 2

3. Weekly Connections and Teachable Moments Table of Contents Issue 4: October 16, 2011 ( Pages 14-15) *Issue 4 had 1 attachment. English | Language Arts | Art Connection Reminder: KeepVid Math to Career Connection What Are We Working On Behind the Scenes? Effectively Planning for Using A Substitute Teacher Two Weeks and Counting Until Halloween! Issue 5: October 23, 2011 (Pages 16-19) *Issue 5 had 1 attachment. Teaching About Thanksgiving Teachable Moment: Plimouth versus Plymouth Shout Out to Cristen Hardin, Information Lit. Teacher Update on PDF Versions of Lesson Plans Adding Content To CCC! Training Help! Issue 6: October 31, 2011 (Pages 20-21) *Issue 6 did not have any attachments. Aligning Resources to Popular Textbooks New Lesson Plan: Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Clicka Bones! How to Use Closed Captioning Programs to Create Reading Resources for ESL Learners 5 Techniques for Creating High Quality Lesson Plans Check Out Web 2.0 Tool: Collaborize Classroom Presenting at Minnesota TIES 2011 Dec. 12-13 What am I working on currently? Issue 7: November 6, 2011 (Pages 22-24) *Issue 7 had 2 attachments. New Lesson Plan: Weapons of SMASH Destruction Connection to Weekly Reader's Digital Edition Connection to One of Collaborize Classroom's Most Effective Topics of the Week Curriculum Mapping Helpers Connecting to Media Players That Work - Important Information If You Download Digital Content New Administrator Workshop offered by New Dimension Media 3

4. Weekly Connections and Teachable Moments Table of Contents Issue 8: November 13, 2011 (Pages 25-26) *Issue 8 had 1 attachment. The Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address New Content for 2012 Lesson Plan on Weapons of SMASH Destruction Shout Out to Deanna Erickson from Unity School District Got a Feature or Function You Would Like? On the Road Again! Issue 9: November 20, 2011 (Pages 27-28) *Issue 9 had 1 attachment. Many Thanks! Searching Help Closed Captioning Help Shout Out to Lori Willey iPad Help More iPad Help iPrint App from Epson On To More Great Travel and Training! Issue 10: Special Edition - November 22, 2011 (Pages 29) *Issue 10 did not have any attachments. SMARTBoard grant opportunity Issue 11: December 4, 2011 (Pages 30-31) *Issue 11 had 1 attachment. New Lesson Plan - 3 Digit Numbers New Cue Card - How To Make An Image Transparent More iPad Help Tech the Halls - A Tech Project You'll Kids Will Love More New Content from Disney! On the Road Again! 4

5. Teachable Moment Sept. 13, 2011 Good Morning Everyone, Thought you might enjoy this timely story as reported by BBC News on author, Roald Dahl. A great current story to use with intermediate students along with the 3 Dahl programs ID# 23288, 23287 and 23286 found in your CCC! library. Looking for a good connection to the new writing standards found in the newly released Common Core Standards? Have your students read the article, divide students into 3 groups each responsible for watching one of the video programs and write an "argument" (no longer called persuasive essay) to evidence why (or why not) Roald Dahl should be included in the all time favorite list of children's authors. How did I find this info today? I have an RSS feed brought into CCC! for BBC News. When I searched for Roald Dahl, I got two current event returns. I've captured a screen shot to show you what I see through my login when searching today for Dahl. It is attached for you to take a quick look. If you would like to create an RSS feed for BBC news or any other online info, the step-by- step directions are also attached for your convenience. With a teachable moment, All the best, Jo-Ann Attachments: 1. Training Cue Card: Using RSS Feeds 2. Training Cue Card: RSS Feed Results 5

6. Teachable Moment Sept. 19, 2011 Welcome to A New Week! And another opportunity to integrate CCC! programming into your instruction. Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Melissa Moreland, Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions, and I are on a 10-day trip across New York state, which is a glorious time to visit New York. The colors of the trees are just starting to pop, and I was reminded that this is one of those "teachable" moments you could use to create a bookmark that would be re-useable year after year. See what you think... After searching for programming related to fall, I found program 47069 Plants (Bill Nye). I previewed the segment entitled, Plants Shut Down. It was perfect for answering the question on the fall season, What causes trees to change color? I created a bookmark with a title using that question (What causes trees to change color?). I did change the timing of the bookmark just a bit using the start time of 20:09 and an end time of 20:52 so it is just perfect! So, now that I have my bookmark, I have a teachable moment to go to when students ask me questions related to fall or trees. I could also use this as a pre-assessment to a Unit on Seasons to find out what my students know/don't know. I would simply ask the question and record their answers about what they think causes the trees to change colors. Once we reviewed all the answers given, I'd play the bookmark to confirm/correct students' perceptions. If you like this idea, try making this same bookmark in your CCC! account. I've attached directions for making a bookmark for your convenience! You might even want to use my start/stop times knowing that these are exact. That's all for now! Here with a teachable moment, Jo-Ann Attachment: 1. Training Cue Card: Creating A Bookmark 6

7. Weekly Connection: September 25, 2011 Issue 1 Hi Everyone: After a lengthy trip throughout New York state, Melissa Moreland and I are back at the home office in Chicago! We had such a great time training at the Orange-Ulster BOCES, Sullivan BOCES, Broome Tioga BOCES, Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES, Wayne Finger Lakes BOCES and Buffalo Public Schools. We also attended the EMTA (Educational Media Technology Association) Conference, which was an extraordinary event. Keynote speaker Tony Vincent was terrific. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, don't pass it up. He really excels at transitioning from the theoretical to the practical application stage in technology with numerous examples and ideas for implementation in the classroom. Until you get to hear him in person, I advise you visit his website entitled, Tony Vincent's Learning In Hand http://learninginhand.com/. If you've ever wanted to know more about how to harness kids' learning power where and when they need, you'll love this website. Let's Get Ready to Teach About Veteran's Day Get ready for that teachable moment by creating a bookmark now related to Veteran's Day. Search by program ID# 23247 and create a bookmark with the start time 00:07:03 and ending time 00:07:27. As Veteran's Day approaches (Friday, Nov. 11, 2011), you can go to your Digital Director bar | Bookmarks and teach kids about the significance of this holiday. By creating teachable moment bookmarks, you will be mapping visual resources easily and routinely throughout your curriculum. Create it now, use it later! New Lesson Plan Posted on Connection I've posted a new lesson plan on the Connection website (www.cccConnection.com) to help you teach about perspective and perception. Recommended for grades 7-12, this fun lesson plan is create in Power Point only highlighting the use of transitions, actions, insertion of hyperlinks and images. Don't forget to also check out the Creative Ideas page on the Connection site for more ideas about how to effectively teach perspective/perception. Lots of humor woven into this plan; be sure to click on it and, I hope, you enjoy using it with your students.http://learninginhand.com/www.cccConnection.com Third Party Software That Can Make YOUR Teaching Mobile Tired of being tethered to the front of the classroom by your interactive whiteboard technology (IWB)? I have found a third party software program that allows me to use my newly purchased (yahoo!) iPad2 to control my projector and/or IWB software from anywhere in the classroom. It is called Doceri, and you can check it out at http://doceri.com/. Fairly cheap ($50.00) for allowing me to become a better trainer, and work with multiple groups while managing CCC! I love it! Wish I'd thought of this:) While I recommend you check this out, please note, Doceri is not owned or affiliated with New Dimension Media.http://doceri.com/ 7

8. Kratz' Design Studio What am I working on behind the scenes? I am experimenting with ways to teach kids to create their own personal learning Apps including CCC! digital content. Why wait for someone else to make the app when kids would love to learn how to make an app! Actually, this isn't too hard. I've already created a couple that function nicely, and now I am just focusing on making them graphically more appealing. So, stay tuned! I'll let you know when I've figured this out! Professional Development Workshops Are you on your school's leadership committee? Do you have a in-service or staff development day coming up? Don't forget, we offer 1 and 2 day workshops on creative ways to use digital content in lesson plans, centers and assessments. These workshops are what I like to describe as 21st Century Make and Take It events. For more information, don't hesitate to contact me to customize a workshop that best meets your school/district's needs! Quote of the Week: "You are a genius and the world needs your contribution," Angela Maiers. To read more about this quote and how it applies to storytelling, go here: http://bit.ly/btMsRS. To All The Genius' You Will Inspire This Week, Enjoy the magic, Jo-Annhttp://bit.ly/btMsRS 8

9. Weekly Connection: September 30, 2011 Issue 2 Welcome to October! Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. In schools, we often see three celebration events in October including Columbus Day, Red Ribbon Week (RRW) and Halloween. CCC! is perfect to help you augment your celebration events and bring appropriate digital content into the curriculum. I've had a lot of fun this week creating playlists that combine programs and segments around RRW and Halloween. Take a look: Red Ribbon Week: In celebration of Drug Awareness, I have constructed a playlist that strings together programs from K-12. Perhaps you have a school leadership committee or curriculum committee that is in charge of planning for such school-wide events/celebrations. CCC! is perfect for committee level work. The Red Ribbon Week playlist combines 17 different videos. I can edit the segment field in the playlist feature, so I put in grade level and program ID. I like keeping track of playlist elements by the ID number. It makes it easy for me to give you this info and allows you to search by ID number quickly and efficiently. It also makes it easy for teachers to click on the video that is right for their grade level. See the attached directions if you would like to create this playlist as well. I've also included the background info on how RRW began and a few clip art images just in case you choose to create an interactive whiteboard lesson plan on RRW. One indicator that your school/district is stepping forward with creating 21st Century classrooms/learning is when resources like CCC! are used at the committee or team level. This transition from individual teacher usage to system level usage is a critical step in a successful technology integration plan. Halloween The Halloween playlist combines both video and audio programs around a central theme. Perfect for the K-5 level. I love using audio files while asking students to drawing the picture that is in their mind's eye as they listen. (Great reading strategy) Ask students to then tell about their pictures emphasizing story details that are represented. Celebrate by viewing the corresponding video file. I have attached directions for this playlist including the editing I did in the segment field where I added the description of "video" or "audio" and the program ID#. Create this now and you'll be ready to rock Halloween with your students at the end of the month! Columbus Celebration Challenge! (CCC!) I've provided resources for RRW and Halloween. Now it's your turn. Create a bookmark, playlist or lesson using a CCC! hyperlink related to Columbus Day and send me the info in an email. I'd love to highlight your ideas on our Connection site or future Weekly Connection email communications. I absolutely LOVE hearing from you. Take a look at the next item; Amy Wild shared the following story with me this week! 9

10. Shout Out to CCC! Teacher Amy Wild from Caledonia School District 299 in Minnesota Caledonia SD299 Superintendent, Bruce Thomas, asked Amy Wild, mathematics teacher, to give a presentation to the curriculum committee at the high school. This involved teachers, school board members and parents. He said he was looking for about a 15 minute presentation getting the technology message out. In order to the show the efficacy of using technology, Amy created a SMART Notebook presentation that was interactive including a video clips from CCC!. She also created video taped lessons for her 38 pre-calculus students. Students are able to watch the video of Mrs. Wild teaching the concepts at their own pace. She then uses class time primarily for small group instruction and answering questions. What a truly unique and creative approach to making math instruction personal and individualized! Good luck to everyone in Caledonia School District 299, as they consider going to referendum for additional technology dollars. Speaking of Math - Interested in Competing in Mathematics Online? Then you won't want to miss: The American Math Challenge. Sponsored by eSchool News, there is FREE registration and participation with great prizes to be won. October 12th and 13th, 2011. Go here to learn more, www.americanmathchallenge.com. Bloom's Taxonomy Tied to Technology _ YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS ONE! As you may know, when schools/districts purchase professional development services from New Dimension Media, we emphasize the importance of using Bloom's Taxonomy to check lesson plan design for rigor. We are explicit in our choice of verbs that are selected when constructing project-based learning experiences. I came across this awesome graphic of many different Web 2.0 tools mapped to Bloom's Taxonomy Pyramid. Exceptionally well done and from Southern Illinois University. So, now we can become much more strategic in our usage of Web 2.0 tools focusing on the key question, What exactly am I expecting of my students when I use these Web 2.0 tools? Professional Development Services from New Dimension Media Do you know teachers who feel stressed because their classrooms have been outfitted with the latest technology devices, but there just seems like there is so little time to actually learn how to use these effectively? Has your school/district ever purchased a variety of software products, but overlooked how the implementation process would be managed? We can help. Our professional development services help teachers learn how to use the devices they have, software products that have been purchased and digital content from New Dimension Media in interactive and fun workshops. If you school/district is short on professional development funds, then touch base with your local technology coop or media service center and ask them to help! They do amazing things in terms of supporting teachers' learning and growth in technology integration. Perhaps they would be willing to offer a New Dimension Media workshop open to teachers across the county or service area. Together we create a connected learning community, Have a wonderful week everyone! All the best, Jo-Annwww.americanmathchallenge.com Attachments: 1. Training Cue Card: Red Ribbon Week Playlist Directions 2. Training Cue Card: Halloween Playlist Directions 3. Training Cue Card: Bloom’s Technology Taxonomy 10

11. Weekly Connection: October 2011 Issue 3 Hi Everyone! I hope you found last week's ideas fun and engaging. Here are more creative ideas to help you continue to integrate CCC! throughout your instruction. This Week in History: Sputnik Launches America Into a National Week of Shame In October of 1957, history was made when Russia launched the first satellite into space igniting the Space Race within the Cold War that existed between Russia and the United States at that time. The United States was viewed as second in technological advancements to Russia and embarrassed world-wide. To seize this teachable moment, I've created a playlist entitled, Sputnik Launches America Into a National Week of Shame. I've used the following media elements in my playlist to recreate this historic time in world history for students: Newsreel US Falters in The Space Race | 90075 1945-1989: The Cold War | Segment: Peaceful Coexistence | 51469 Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy | Segment: Space Race | 23236 What a great way to begin talking to students about the historic event of this past July when the first era of NASA’s human spaceflight efforts came to end at precisely 5:57:54 am Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, July 21, 2011. Exactly 54 seconds after the wheels of its main landing gear made contact with the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle Atlantis came to a halt, an event known in shuttle lingo as “wheels stop.” Never again would a shuttle orbiter move under its own propulsion: from here on out the shuttles would be towed, trucked, and even flown atop their 747 carrier aircraft until they reach their final destinations, museums in Los Angeles, near Washington and Kennedy Space Center itself. (Source: The Space Review: Wheels Stop) Complete directions for creating this playlist are attached for your convenience. Directions include bonus images for use in teaching about space! Art Teachers: Saint Louis Museum Reunites Monet's Water Lilies For the first time in over 30 years, The Saint Louis Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and The Cleveland Museum of Art have collaborated to reunite the three panels of Agapanthus as Monet intended. To read the whole story, go here: http://bit.ly/nVDxHn. To learn more about Claude Monet, I've created a special bookmark from the program entitled, Impressionism program ID#50002. Go here to view custom bookmark: http://bit.ly/r89P5g. Want to make this bookmark in your account in CCC!? The complete directions are attached.http://bit.ly/nVDxHnhttp://bit.ly/r89P5g 11

12. Let's Get Technical: How to Convert a Long URL Into a Short URL (like shown in the example above) When using hyperlinks in lesson plans or email communications, the length can be irritating to say the least. I like to use the free online tool Bitly to shorten my long urls before integrating them into a lesson plan or email. There are two shortened urls in the example shown above (Art Teachers). You can do this in four easy steps: 1. To use Bitly, you'll need to highlight and copy the long url you want to shorten. 2. Then go to www.bitly.com and right click/paste in the field shown on the page. 3. Next, select "shorten" and a smaller url will be revealed. 4. You are given two choices, customize or copy. I select "copy" and then return to my lesson plan or email and paste the shortened url in the appropriate place. Voila! Looks much nicer and it is easier for users to manage. Tiny URL, found at www.tinyurl.com, works similarly. Both are great tools, which I have bookmarked on my Bookmark Toolbar in my Internet browser for quick access. Great APP for iPad2 As I have shared over the past several weeks, I am having so much fun discovering new ways to use digital content with my new iPad2! I have a new favorite App, AVPlayerHD, a video player application which allows me to create folders for CCC! videos I download and put into my iTunes library. I begin by connecting my iPad to my computer and launching iTunes. Next steps are shown below: 1. Go to device > MyiPad. 2. Click Apps tab on the top menu. 3. Scroll down using the scroll bar on the right. 4. Click AVPlayerHD in the Apps on the left lower corner. 5. Add files into the AVPlayerHD Document by Dragging and Dropping the file or clicking on the Add Button. Now I can organize my CCC! videos by curriculum folders that kids can easily navigate. For example, I created a Weather Unit folder and put in CCC! videos from the Cloudy Cloud series, several fictional stories like Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and several videos about how animals adapt in different seasons. After I introduce the unit using this week's new interactive lesson plan on Weather, students will use iPads to continue their learning at the "video center." Pair kids up to share ear buds, and you've really kicked the concept of "social media" up a notch in your classroom! AVPlayerHD App isn't free, but for $2.99 I find it well worth the investment to be able to better organize my curricular resources in a way that makes sense for both students and myself.www.bitly.comwww.tinyurl.com 12

13. New Lesson Plan of The Week As noted above, there is a new interactive lesson plan posted on the Connection site. It focuses on the concept of weather for students in grades kindergarten through second grade. You do have to register to access the entire interactive library of lesson plans. Visit www.cccConnection.com to register today! Shout Out to Buffalo Public Schools (NY) Kudos to all the Instructional Technology Coaches in Buffalo Public School District who have been out training teachers on CCC! this week. Melissa Moreland, Vice President, and I visited BPS two weeks ago to conduct a train the trainer session, and we can tell they are truly living their mission to help teachers begin implementing the use of digital content. This week alone we have seen over 100 teachers from BPS become registered users on the Connection site! That's a record number of enrollments from one organization in a week! Keep up the great work BPS; you are awesome. On The Road Again! One of the favorite parts of my job is traveling across the United States to work with educators at many different levels. I'm hitting the road the week of Oct. 17th heading out to Colorado to conduct training and visit many of our CCC! schools/districts. At the same time, Melissa Moreland, Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions, is headed to Las Vegas, NV for the National Media Market, the marketplace for 21st century learning. If you are a librarian or media specialist attending the Market, be sure to connect with Melissa at the NDM Suite #408 to learn more about our high quality digital content and licensing options available. We appreciate you passing this info onto all the librarians and media specialists you know! Thank you. www.cccConnection.com Together we create a connected learning community! Have a wonderful week, Jo-Ann Attachment: 1. Training Cue Card: Sputnik Playlist Directions 13

14. Weekly Connection: October 16, 2011 Issue 4 Welcome to This Week's Connection from New Dimension Media! I hope you have all had a great week and are enjoying family and friend this weekend. As you prepare for a new week, here are some tips and techniques to help you use CCC! effectively. English | Language Arts | Art Connection The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. You will find three resources about Ernest Hemingway in your CCC! digital library (Program ID#'s 47335, 90242 and 52219). Available in the public domain (You Tube and others) are two additional films, The Old Man And The Sea Part I and Part II, which are animated and directed by Alexander Petrov. These companion resources recast in the author's striking style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Magnificently transposed through this award winning artist's more than 29,000 oil paintings, this film carries all the emotional power and meaning of the original story. Together these resources make every instructional unit about Ernest Hemingway much more effective and interesting to students! Reminder: KeepVid - Free Tool for Downloading Public Domain Video Resources Just a reminder about the free tool KeepVid found at www.keepvid.com. If your school blocks you from accessing Teacher Tube, You Tube and other sources of public domain videos, consider downloading them at home (or outside of your school's firewall) using KeepVid. Just copy the url address of the resource you want to download, go to KeepVid and paste the url into the only field showing on the site and select download. In a matter of seconds, you will get the video resource offered to you in multiple file formats which you can save to a jump drive. Math to Career Connection Each day hundreds of people board trains to go to work or for leisure travel. The video, All Aboard (Program ID# 51147) is a video resource that highlights a Systems Developer for Amtrak using a problem solving approach to real world mathematics. The new Common Core Standards emphasize the importance of helping students make these important connections between mathematics and careers. If you have students who are fascinated by trains or systems engineering, this is a resource you will want to include in your instruction.www.keepvid.com 14

15. What Are We Working On Behind the Scenes? You might remember from your training that New Dimension Media is a producer of original content along with acquiring content from all the giants in the content industry. This means that when there is a lack of pertinent or newer resources on a needed topic, New Dimension Media can step up quickly to create the resources teachers need in order to make their teaching more engaging and meaningful. Currently, we are in the process of creating new (original) programming focused on English grammar topics. These resources are scheduled to be completed in time for our fall 2012 content update. Effectively Planning for Using A Substitute Teacher As a former principal, I know my teachers were committed to providing high quality instruction each day, every day. However, we often experienced years when the district was involved in major initiatives that required teachers to be out of their classrooms for training quite a bit. I wish I had CCC! to help my teachers not become overwhelmed with writing substitute lesson plans. The student and teacher's guides in CCC! are great resources for providing high quality plans for substitute teachers. I recommend when you have a year that you know is going to involve a lot of training during the day, that teachers work together at grade levels to identify CCC! resources that will be used strategically for these purposes. Teachers download both the PDF guides and the videos, and save them in a Desktop folder on the teacher's computer. Substitute plans can easily refer to this Desktop folder where a substitute teacher can easily click to open and continue teaching in moment's notice. You can't always plan for when a substitute may be needed, but substitute planning can always be high quality when you use CCC! resources to solve the problem. Two Weeks and Counting Until Halloween! I must admit, as a former kindergarten teacher, Halloween was not my favorite day of the year. With a half-day kindergarten program, I was exhausted at having to help 30 kids dress up and return them back to looking normal within 2.5 hours, just to repeat the experience again in the afternoon. In the Welcome to October weekly connection I sent out two weeks ago, I included directions for making a CCC! Halloween Playlist. If you haven't made the Halloween Playlist yet, do yourself a favor and start making it today to keep your Halloween week less stressed for both you and the kids (and your Room Mothers:) I've attached the directions again today for your convenience. That's it for this week! I hope these weekly connections help you create timely and terrific connections with your students. Don't forget to also visit The Connection found at www.cccConnection.com for more resources and lesson plans. Together we will create a connected learning community, All the best, Jo-Ann www.cccConnection.com Attachment: 1. Training Cue Card: Halloween Playlist 15

16. 16 Getting Ready for November Teaching About Thanksgiving: Integration Language Arts, Science and Art Instruction One of my favorite programs in the CCC! digital library is Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message, program ID# 46047. Known as the Thanksgiving Address, this Native American good morning message is based on the belief that the natural world is a precious and rare gift - from the moon and the stars to the tiniest blade of grass. Narrated by Chief Jake Swamp in English and in the Mohawk language. It is a wonderful program for integrating language arts and art instruction. This week's new lesson plan, recommended for grades 2 through 5, is based on this program. Visit www.cccConnection to download it today! Teachable Moment: Plimouth versus Plymouth If you are starting to search in CCC! for Thanksgiving related resources, you may notice two different spellings of Plymouth. Plymouth is the modern spelling and used most frequently today. However, the Old English spelling of Plimouth is sometimes used to denote a historic site or reference. This is a great opportunity to teach students how language and spelling can change over time. Shout Out to Cristen Hardin, Information Lit. Teacher at Mountain Ridge Middle School (Academy School District 20, Colorado Springs, CO) Cristin Hardin contacted me this week to ask about creative ways to share a list of videos with her teachers to highlight content that would be valuable for them to preview. What an awesome collaborative concept! I created a cue card for her to edit to her liking. This provides a visual interface for her to type a short note about a video and hyperlink to the content. I'm attaching this cue card with complete directions in case others would like to steal (oops, I mean adopt!) her wonderful approach to supporting her teachers. Thanks, Cristen! Update on PDF Versions of Lesson Plans on The Connection Website (www.cccConnection.com) As you may know, we post a variety of lesson plans on the Connection site for teachers to use to supplement their curriculum and instruction. I've been asked why we create PDF formats since the links in those lessons do not work. Great question! Originally, the idea was that teachers might want to have a pdf file to print/keep with their unit in hard copy. However, I've got great news! I upgraded my Adobe software, and now all the links in the PDF format of the lesson plans will work. Isn't technology wonderful? There is another reason why we have PDF versions of lesson plans. Interactive whiteboard technology has really gained in popularity within the last 18-24 months. Prior to that we did create lesson plans in PDF form with complete urls for reference. These lessons are what we have labeled as "Effortless Lesson Plans" on the Connection site. They are great resources so be sure to check these out. So, from this point forward, all PDF versions will have functioning links. I'll be going back to previous lessons as time permits to make all the links functional on all of our lesson plans. When I update a PDF format with working links, I'll save with the same name, but will add the word "upgraded" so you know that I've improved this particular lesson. It's all about improvement - today, tomorrow, continuously. Adding Content To CCC! I am often asked by educators about the CCC! feature of being able to add a school's original content. The questions mostly focus on what other schools/districts are doing in terms of creating original content. While there are some obvious ideas such as student performances or celebration events, I like to steer teachers in a direction that is more instructional in nature. For example, if you have access to affordable video cameras, you might want to consider the following: 1. Create a video interview of a peer recommending a book to read and why it should be read. 2. Create different videos of various solutions to a math problem including why the individual/group feels this is the most effective method. 3. Create a video tour of your school in a different language. This can help new students who are ESL feel very comfortable upon enrolling. 4. And, don't forget to consider the enormous potential of creating a video of key explanations in your lesson for kids and parents to review. These instructional approaches to creating original content help teachers become 21st century digital leaders through their creative approaches to using advanced features of CCC! Training Help! Many of the educators who I have had the pleasure of training are responsible for training others back in their schools or districts. I love sharing my training materials with you because I want training others to be as easy as possible for you. This week I've created (and attached) two new versions of our Top Titles Brochure. This is a bit more graphic in nature and available in ppt for you to project or pdf which is better for electronic sharing. All our training begins with highlighting the new and original content available on the CCC! system. If you are training others, start with the content and then move onto software features. It is a very effective approach for getting others hooked on how much CCC! can help teachers integrate media literacy strategies into their instruction. Together we create a connected learning community, Have a wonderful week, Jo-Ann Teaching About Thanksgiving: Integration Language Arts, Science and Art Instruction One of my favorite programs in the CCC! digital library is Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message, program ID# 46047. Known as the Thanksgiving Address, this Native American good morning message is based on the belief that the natural world is a precious and rare gift - from the moon and the stars to the tiniest blade of grass. Narrated by Chief Jake Swamp in English and in the Mohawk language. It is a wonderful program for integrating language arts and art instruction. This week's new lesson plan, recommended for grades 2 through 5, is based on this program. Visit www.cccConnection to download it today! Teachable Moment: Plimouth versus Plymouth If you are starting to search in CCC! for Thanksgiving related resources, you may notice two different spellings of Plymouth. Plymouth is the modern spelling and used most frequently today. However, the Old English spelling of Plimouth is sometimes used to denote a historic site or reference. This is a great opportunity to teach students how language and spelling can change over time. Shout Out to Cristen Hardin, Information Lit. Teacher at Mountain Ridge Middle School (Academy School District 20, Colorado Springs, CO) Cristin Hardin contacted me this week to ask about creative ways to share a list of videos with her teachers to highlight content that would be valuable for them to preview. What an awesome collaborative concept! I created a cue card for her to edit to her liking. This provides a visual interface for her to type a short note about a video and hyperlink to the content. I'm attaching this cue card with complete directions in case others would like to steal (oops, I mean adopt!) her wonderful approach to supporting her teachers. Thanks, Cristen! Update on PDF Versions of Lesson Plans on The Connection Website (www.cccConnection.com) As you may know, we post a variety of lesson plans on the Connection site for teachers to use to supplement their curriculum and instruction. I've been asked why we create PDF formats since the links in those lessons do not work. Great question! Originally, the idea was that teachers might want to have a pdf file to print/keep with their unit in hard copy. However, I've got great news! I upgraded my Adobe software, and now all the links in the PDF format of the lesson plans will work. Isn't technology wonderful? There is another reason why we have PDF versions of lesson plans. Interactive whiteboard technology has really gained in popularity within the last 18-24 months. Prior to that we did create lesson plans in PDF form with complete urls for reference. These lessons are what we have labeled as "Effortless Lesson Plans" on the Connection site. They are great resources so be sure to check these out. So, from this point forward, all PDF versions will have functioning links. I'll be going back to previous lessons as time permits to make all the links functional on all of our lesson plans. When I update a PDF format with working links, I'll save with the same name, but will add the word "upgraded" so you know that I've improved this particular lesson. It's all about improvement - today, tomorrow, continuously.www.cccConnection.com Weekly Connection: October 23, 2011 Issue 5

17. Adding Content To CCC! I am often asked by educators about the CCC! feature of being able to add a school's original content. The questions mostly focus on what other schools/districts are doing in terms of creating original content. While there are some obvious ideas such as student performances or celebration events, I like to steer teachers in a direction that is more instructional in nature. For example, if you have access to affordable video cameras, you might want to consider the following: 1. Create a video interview of a peer recommending a book to read and why it should be read. 2. Create different videos of various solutions to a math problem including why the individual/group feels this is the most effective method. 3. Create a video tour of your school in a different language. This can help new students who are ESL feel very comfortable upon enrolling. 4. And, don't forget to consider the enormous potential of creating a video of key explanations in your lesson for kids and parents to review. These instructional approaches to creating original content help teachers become 21st century digital leaders through their creative approaches to using advanced features of CCC! Training Help! Many of the educators who I have had the pleasure of training are responsible for training others back in their schools or districts. I love sharing my training materials with you because I want training others to be as easy as possible for you. This week I've created (and attached) a new version of our Top Titles Brochure. This is a bit more graphic in nature and available in ppt for you to project or pdf (as an attachment) which is better for electronic sharing. All our training begins with highlighting the new and original content available on the CCC! system. If you are training others, start with the content and then move onto software features. It is a very effective approach for getting others hooked on how much CCC! can help teachers integrate media literacy strategies into their instruction. Together we create a connected learning community, Have a wonderful week, Jo-Ann Attachment: 1. Training Cue Card: Sharing Digital Content 17

18. Where Do You Start to Examine CCC! Content? With The Top Titles! K-8 Highlights Social Studies Search & Select Talking Maps Turkey Clinton Yellowstone 14 Wonders World War II: Europe Beyond Our Borders Clinton, Bush, Obama An Environment of Ext. Intro to the 14 Wonders Math Search & Select Decimals The Accuracy of Numbers Probability Bill Nye Reasoning Rocket Million Reasoning-Puzzle Maths Rocket-Soda Shapes If You Made a Million Science Search & Select Planet H20 Rio Grande Archaeology Forensics Animal Babies Solutions Bill Nye Elephant | Giraffe Solutions Language Arts Search & Select Moo Metaphors Homophones Scrambled Chrysanthemum Click, Clack, Moo Characters, Metaphors Homophones (1) The Scrambled States Chrysanthemum

19. Where Do You Start to Examine CCC! Content? With The Top Titles! Grades 7-12 Highlights Social Studies Search & Select Mandela Talking Maps Civil Religion Phoenicians Waterloo Nelson Mandela World War I Civil Religion & Prayer The Alphabet & Carthage Napoleon at Waterloo Math Search & Select Finance What’s Up in Finance? Linear Functions Algebra Applications Quadratic Functions Functions & Relations Roots Algebra Applications Roots: The Radical Idea Secrets of Plant Genomes Language Arts Search & Select Digital Stories Plagiarism Blogging Harry Potter C.S. Lewis How to Make Digital What do you value? Serious Media or Rant? Real Worlds and Heroic C.S. Lewis Science Search & Select Lizard Adaptive An Anatomy Everglades Honeybees Plant Genomes Mega Tsunami Restoration of Florida’s Mystery of Disappearing Mega Tsunami Secrets of Plant Genomes

20. Weekly Connection: October 31, 2011 Issue 6 Welcome To A New Week! The beginning of November brings many new opportunities to help you in your teaching, as you face the beginning of a new quarter, report cards, parent conferences and a shortened schedule of teaching days due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Don't become overwhelmed and risk underwhelming your students. Do what Heidi Hayes Jacobs suggests and learn how to stay "whelmed" - just the right amount of energy in order to teach well and provide students with 21st century learning opportunities. The information below has been highlighted to help you have interactive digital lessons, learn new Web 2.0 tools and broaden your instructional design skills through 5 tips and techniques. Enjoy! Aligning Resources to Popular Textbooks One of the aspects of my job that I love is aligning CCC! programming to the popular textbooks used in classrooms today. This week I was aligning programming to the Prentice Hall U.S. History book, An American Nation. Longitude and latitude are included in Unit 1. We have an excellent historical mathematics resource that focuses on these two concepts. Program 24614 Coordinate Geometry: Latitude and Longitude combines the real world example of using latitude/longitude with teaching the application of coordinate geometry. It also lends itself very well to use as an assessment strategy. Within the program, the question is raised, why is latitude so much easier to measure than longitude? By creating your own bookmark ending with this question, you can ask students to respond in a variety of ways to share their thinking and reasoning skills related to this question. I just love our Geometry and Algebra Applications series, which is why I chose to highlight these with this example. If you are looking to integrate your teaching of social studies and mathematics, this series is the best you'll ever find! To find these programs, search using the keywords TI-Nspire or Nspirations. Please note, if you don't use this particular calculator at your school, there are many free graphing calculators available online. The videos, however, are so awesome in applying coordinate geometry and applied algebra you won't want to overlook these resources if you are a math or history teacher. Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Clicka Bones! As mentioned above, I enjoy aligning CCC! content to popular textbooks and core curriculum resources such as Foss and Delta science kits. If you teach grades 3 to 5 and use the Foss/Delta science kit on the skeletal system, then you'll want to download this lesson for sure. This is the featured lesson plan of the week entitled Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Clicka Bones on our Connection site (www.cccConnection.com). This lesson plan demonstrates two instructional design techniques of 1.) using an image as an instructional portal to connect with CCC! videos and 2.) the use of a sound file to engage students through music. The song Clicka Dem Bones by Robert Force and Albert d'Ossche' is available through iTunes for $0.99, which you can insert by selecting the image of the skeleton guitar player, right clicking and choosing sound file. I did have to convert the music file I purchased in iTunes to an MP3 so it would play in my SMARTBoard Notebook software first. I used a free online file converter to do this found at http://audio.online-convert.com/convert- to-mp3. With Monday being Halloween, this lesson is a fun way to keep the instructional focus on essential curriculum during one of the craziest days of the year! Don't forget to check out the Creative Ideas page on the Connection site for additional teaching ideas that complement this lesson plan.www.cccConnection.comhttp://audio.online-convert.com/convert- to-mp3 20

21. How to Use Closed Captioning Programs to Create Reading Resources for ESL Learners Have you ever struggled to find ESL materials for your students when it comes to science and social studies? The readability level of these texts is often just too hard resulting in ESL learners frequently feeling frustrated. Many of our programs now have closed captioning that users can toggle on and off. I like to use this feature with the print screen capability on my computer to create reading resources that directly emphasize classroom instruction for English as a Second Language students. Make sure closed captioning is on by selecting the CC icon on the media player. The subtitles will appear. Now you can use your print screen feature to capture the visual with the text and print/assemble a resource to use at the guided reading table. Pretty cool! You have grade level material with a concise reading text that is simple and straightforward. 5 Techniques for Creating High Quality Lesson Plans Check our the new Forum discussion thread on the Connection site: www.cccconnection.com/index.php/site/cccforum/viewthread/13/) www.cccconnection.com/index.php/site/cccforum/viewthread/13/ This Forum highlights five techniques for creating high quality lesson plans. If you want to create interactive lesson plans similar to the ones I post on the Connection site, then check out these five tips to increase the quality of your designs today. I encourage you to leave a comment about other tips and techniques you use when designing lesson plans for interactive whiteboard technologies. Check Out Web 2.0 Tool: Collaborize Classroom I am always in search of new Web 2.0 tools to use in my lesson plans. This week I want to highlight Collaborative Classroom, a free online education platform that provides capability for meaningful conversations related to your curriculum where students can ask and answer questions, collaborate on projects, vote on issues and ideas, and see tangible results of those conversations. Teachers can continue valuable online discussions by weaving them back into classroom discussions, facilitate online learning groups, encourage the sharing of resources, and provide students with a safe space to engage in collaborative learning. Collaborize Classroom provides numerous possibilities for blended learning. I recommend to start that you review lessons, activities and assignments that other teachers have found successful in the Topic Library. Lots of great information here! Presenting at Minnesota TIES 2011 Dec. 12-13 I am so pleased to be presenting a session at the TIES 2011 Education Technology Conference to be held December 12-13, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis. The session title is Media Literacy for the 21st Century Classroom. I hope to connect with many of our Minnesota teachers and CCC! enthusiasts who may be attending this superb technology event. What am I working on currently? I have gotten hooked on the Angry Birds App since purchasing my new iPad2. This has now turned into my inspiration for another interactive lesson plan design. I hope to have this done by next week so be sure to check out the Connection site to see how the theme of Angry Birds inspires my next lesson plan! Together we create a connected learning community, Have a wonderfully instructional week everyone! All the best, Jo-Ann 21

22. Weekly Connection: November 6 Issue 7 Hi Everyone! Welcome to another week and another opportunity to connect CCC! programming to other resources and Web 2.0 tools that you use (or should check out!). This week I want to help you with your technology integration process. As a former Asst. Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, I bought a lot of hardware and software for teachers expecting them to discover creative ways to make these all work together. WOW; was I wrong! As I tried to model technology integration for my teachers, I quickly learned how much time it really took to learn different software programs and tools much less figure out how they worked together. That experience has stayed with me throughout my career into teaching at the college level and becoming a designer/provider of professional development. Expecting anyone to learn and use anything without continued support is not realistic or effective. I dedicate this week's ideas to helping you not only make critical connections to using CCC! digital content, but to also provide you with complete directions, tools and our ongoing commitment to support you 24/7! Coming Monday: Weapons of SMASH Destruction Lesson Plan If you like Angry Birds, you are going to want to check out this week's lesson plan on simple machines (the catapult), Medieval Times and center ideas from iLearn Technology. This lesson plan will be posted on the Connection site tomorrow, Monday, and is only available in SMARTBoard Notebook software for now, but more formats will be posted. Check the Connection site often, as resources are continually added! Connection to Weekly Reader's Digital Edition With the Common Core Standards asking teachers to become more explicit in their teaching and use of information text, I have to tell you I absolutely love the digital edition of Weekly Reader. Not just because this well-known information resource has been a staple in classrooms across the nation boasting over 200,000 teacher subscribers, but because Weekly Reader has successfully kept up with technology integration better than any company I've seen in a long, long time. They have an awesome tool in their digital edition that makes integrating CCC! digital content so easy. You can use CCC! URLs and Hyperlinks feature to create a custom link in the WR Digital Edition and drop it where ever you want in the digital edition. And you can create multiple links. Really cool!!! I've created a Cue Card to give you complete directions for using CCC! with WR Digital Editions. If you aren't currently a subscriber to WR, then you might want to check out their free digital preview editions (found at www.weeklyreader.com/digital) and follow the directions on the attached Cue Card to learn about the ease of use of their tool.www.weeklyreader.com/digital 22

23. Connection to One of Collaborize Classroom's Most Effective Topics of the Week As you may recall, I introduced you to the free Web 2.0 tool Collaborize Classroom last week. This week Collaborize Classroom Topics Team highlighted its most effective topics of the week, one of which was Where Do You See Geometric Shapes in Real Life? inspired by a question shared by Jolene Berg. They offer up a free video connection that is found on You Tube entitled Real Life Shapes. This video is a great video for users who do not have CCC! Streaming Media. But for all of you who have CCC!, you can take it to the next instructional level by using two phenomenal series found in CCC! from Media4Math on geometry and algebra. Find the 41 programs to supplement your teaching by searching on the keyword "TI-Nspire." I am attaching the Curriculum Mapping Helper brochure for Geometry to help you see the connections. Curriculum Mapping Helpers What are Curriculum Mapping Helpers? They are a synopsis brochure highlighting the programs offered in a series and very graphical. We created these tools to help teachers learn about all our new programming that we add each fall. Since we add hundreds of new programs yearly, it isn't realistic to think that teachers would have time to preview them all while setting up their classrooms and preparing for another new year. As noted above, I've attached one Curriculum Mapping Helper (CMH) to this email for your convenience. Other CMHs will be posted on the Connection site on the Training and Support PDF page this week. If you are involved in an adoption cycle or curriculum mapping work, don't forget what curriculum mapping expert, Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs recommends...for teachers to replenish their tired and outdated resources with new and inspiring resources that boost both the level of engagement and learning! These CMHs can help you upgrade your curriculum maps yearly with our new and original content. At New Dimension Media, we are committed to helping teachers with their real work. Connecting to Media Players That Work - Important Information If You Download Digital Content Have you ever downloaded a video (from You Tube, Teacher Tube, CCC!, etc.), and then gotten frustrated because it wouldn't play? The issue isn't anything to do with the video file most likely, but it does have everything to do with the media player you may have installed on your computer. I use VLC media player because I've found this player handles many different file formats and encoding very well. This is a free media player. Give it a try today, and eliminate your downloading frustrations tomorrow. Here are two links for quick access to download the VLC media player. MAC users: http://bit.ly/Ke5k PC users: http://bit.ly/rOSpD9http://bit.ly/Ke5khttp://bit.ly/rOSpD9 23

24. New Administrator Workshop offered by New Dimension Media Pivotal Digital Leadership is a new professional development offering for administrators wanting to improve technology integration at their school/district. Participants of this one-day workshop event will learn about 1.) becoming the school's digital leader; 2.) low-tech strategies with high-tech return and value; 3.) five effective ways to impact change using digital strategies and 4.) how to put the power into the (technology integration) plan. Email Melissa Moreland at mmoreland@cccstreaming.com today for a quote on bringing this valuable workshop to your school/district. I hope you found these connections helpful! Need more help? Email me today with your integration questions; I'll do me best to research, and design Cue Cards and valuable connections to CCC! programming for you. Together we create a connected learning community, All the best, Jo-Ann mmoreland@cccstreaming.com Attachments: 1. Training Cue Card: Weekly Reader Integration 2. Curriculum Mapping Helper: Geometry 24

25. Weekly Connection: November 13, 2011 Issue 8 Welcome to A New Week! And another opportunity to help students "picture" the rich history of our nation. The Gettysburg Address delivered on Nov. 19th, 1863 inspired me to create a K-12 playlist for your use across your school/district/BOCES. It is also a week where I travel across the U.S. with NDM colleagues sharing CCC! Streaming Media with educators everywhere. Here's to a great week of learning and using CCC! in your teaching! Enjoy!!! November 19 (1863): The Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address In honor of the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, I have created a K-12 playlist for your use. The strategy of creating a K-12 playlist is one that I use when I train curriculum leaders in using CCC! This systems-approach to creating visual literacy resources in a playlist is one that helps teachers with their real work! By creating a K-12 playlist on a given topic and putting a check in the "Shared" box, teachers at all grade levels in all schools, can have access to a pre-made and well-thought out curricular resource on a given topics. I alter the segment title field to identify the grade levels and program numbers to re-creating this playlist is easy. Complete directions, created in Power Point, are attached for your convenience. (I use Power Point so you can use this in your New Content for 2012 Our new content and programming department is headed up by Melissa Moreland, Vice President of New Dimension Media. She has been busy these past two months working on more new content for the CCC! Streaming Media library. While I can't divulge any specifics, let me tease you with knowing that you will all be so pleased with what is coming your way in math, language arts and engineering! I've been previewing these new programs and am delighted with it all. Lesson Plan on Weapons of SMASH Destruction We experienced a technical glitch this week on our Connection website with our lesson upload feature. As a result, our new weekly lesson plan did not get posted until Weds. I apologize for the delay. We increased our site security to eliminate getting spammed and it eliminated me:) Because of this delay, I am going to leave this lesson up for the week so users can have time to go download that plan. Got a lesson plan idea? Send it to me; maybe you will inspire the next interactive lesson plan of the week! 25

26. Shout Out to Deanna Erickson from Unity School District This week we received a great suggestion from Deanna Erickson, a teacher in Unity School District. Deanna suggested that we create a link from our CCC!/New Dimension Media website to the CCC! login page. We thought this was a great idea, and have decided to incorporate this into our next content/software upgrade. This strategy will be an effective one for our customers who use the Internet model of CCC! We will need to train/communicate with all our customers on this, as we have customers that have server-based systems or use other media systems to access CCC! That's one of the great things about CCC! Streaming Media, you have your choice in deployment model. Why? Because our core business is media; we are a content company bringing teachers and students the best new and original content for education. Thanks, Deanna! Your suggestion is one that will improve CCC! for many very soon. Got a Feature or Function You Would Like? We believe the voice of our customers is critical in helping guide our decisions on product development. If you have a great idea like Deanna on a new function or feature you think could improve CCC!, send me an email. We love hearing from you, and how we can better serve you and your students with our new products/services. On the Road Again! This is going to be a hugely busy week as New Dimension Media is on the road to Omaha to share CCC! Streaming Media with 19 instructional technology directors representing 300,000 students in Nebraska. Nebraska has been purchasing content from us for over 20 years! From there we travel to Nassau BOCES in New York to share CCC! with the NASTECH group of 60 participating districts. Currently, over 150,000 students in New York alone use CCC! Streaming Media to bring visual literacy to the forefront as a key learning strategy. I love traveling around the U.S. meeting educators who remain focused on what matters, helping students learn. That's it for this week. Have a wonderful learning experience each day; every day! Together We Create a Connected Learning Community, All the best, Jo-Ann Attachment: 1. Training Cue Card: Gettysburg Address & I Have a Dream Playlist 26

27. Weekly Connection: November 20, 2011 Issue 9 As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of our CCC! educators for their continued commitment to their students, and for creating memorable moments of learning day in and day out. I hope you are able to relax and enjoy family and friends in celebration of Thanksgiving. Many Thanks! This past week we had an opportunity to talk with educators at the Nebraska ESU#3 and Nassau County BOCES about the advantages that CCC! has to offer educators who want to bring the best visual literacy resources to their students. On behalf of our NDM team, I want to thank our gracious hosts at each site, Bill Menousek at ESU#2 and Paula Pisano & Matt Hejna at Nassau County BOCES! Your hospitality and thoughtful organization of each event allowed everyone to spend the maximum amount of time possible talking about teaching and learning. Searching Help If you are just getting started with CCC!, you may want additional help to learn how to most effectively use the search function. I've created a Forum post on the Connection site (www.cccConnection.com) regarding this very topic. Follow this link to learn 9 tips and tricks for searching for content that will help you integrate visual resources throughout your instruction: http://tinyurl.com/6q676cy. Closed Captioning Help Need help figuring out the closed captioning feature in CCC!? I've created a Cue Card on this topic and it is attached to this email for your convenience. Also attached, is the title list showing the programs that are closed captioned. Shout Out to Lori Willey from Union Springs Central School District in New York! Thanks to Lori for inspiring this week's free interactive lesson plan entitled, Dolphin Investigators. Lori emailed me this week submitting a suggestion for this lesson plan. She gave me a lot of details that helped me understand what she needed for her important work as librarian. Great idea, Lori, thank you! I hope you and others enjoy this new lesson plan available in SMARTBoard notebook, ActivInspire and PDF.www.cccConnection.com http://tinyurl.com/6q676cy 27

28. iPad Help Do you ever get exhausted from looking for Apps to use in the classroom? Once you find good ones, then you need to learn them, launch them and teach them to kids. The pile on the teacher's plates just keeps piling up! That's why I am over the moon about iPad Curriculum found at http://www.ipadcurriculum.com/. A great searchable database of Apps with several filtering options that eliminates the desire to poke yourself in the eye when trying to figure out what to do next week with those classroom iPads. More iPad Help I get a lot (and I mean A LOT) of questions from teachers about using iPads in the classroom. It is no secret that I adore my iPad, but like many, I needed help in discovering ways to use these in the classroom. I define help in two ways. First, I need everything these days to be affordable. Secondly, I need everything I recommend to be grounded in best practices and sound research. Kathy Schrock has been a provider of electronic (instructional) help information for teachers for many years, and I highly respect the useful and sound information she puts out. She has a great new reference tool entitled Bloomin' iPads that identify -free- apps that align with Blooms Taxonomy. I find these resources very useful when considering ways to launch iPad use in a classroom. Follow this link to get to this info: http://kathyschrock.net/ipadblooms/. iPrint App from Epson If you have an Epson (wireless) printer, then you will want to download the iPrint App (also free). After downloading this App, I was printing immediately from a variety of options including my Dropbox account - all from my iPad. This printer was not expensive at all (about 50 bucks on Amazon), which makes it a great option for home or school use. I added the Connection website to my Home Page on my iPad. Now, when I'm training teachers, I can easily work in different groups - pull up different lesson plans and print. Since I don't like disassembling my home printer to haul everywhere, I like to purchase one in the community in which I'm training. At the end of my training session, I use it as the grand prize "draw" for the day! On To More Great Travel and Training! I am so excited about Minnesota TIES Conference on Dec. 12/13. I'll be presenting on Media Literacy for the 21st Century Classroom. Right after my presentation, I catch a plane back to New York for two days of training at Erie 2 BOCES on Dec. 14/15. After that it is home for the holidays, and then back out to visit the wonderful educators at Academy School District 20 in Colorado on January 3rd. I love training and traveling, as it is such great fun working with CCC! educators around the country. If you are considering scheduling professional development for your school/district/BOCES, don't delay; schedule today to get the dates you need for 2012 (especially if you want training during August of 2012 as these dates go quickly). Many blessings and may you each have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Remember - together we create a connected learning community! All the best, Jo-Ann http://www.ipadcurriculum.com/http://kathyschrock.net/ipadblooms/ 28

29. Weekly Connection: Special Edition – November 22, 2011 Issue 10 Greetings All: This just popped into my email inbox from SMART Technologies. A chance to enter a contest to win a SMARTBoard for your school. The contest highlights the use of SMARTBoards with English Language Learners so you'll need to speak to that in your application (which is really, really easy!). Don't delay - this contest has a short lifespan; open until Nov. 30th. And remember, CCC! Streaming Media content looks fabulous on a SMARTBoard! So, for all those folks who have reached out to me for help on purchasing a SMARTBoard, here you go: http://smarttech.com/contests/ela?WT.ac=ELAcontestemail Happy Thanksgiving once again, Together We Create a Connected Learning Community! All the best, Jo-Ann http://smarttech.com/contests/ela?WT.ac=ELAcontestemail 29

30. Weekly Connection: December 4, 2011 Issue 11 Welcome to another new week in one of my favorite months of the year - December! Attached is a new Cue Card set for you to help teachers broaden their technology skills. Next week there will be another new Cue Card set specifically designed to help English teachers instruct on the topic of The Iliad and The Odyssey! While this month offers students a shortened learning calendar, you can offer students essential learning each and everyday they are in school with supplemental resources found in CCC! Here are some new ideas to help you! New Lesson Plan - 3 Digit Numbers Numerella inspires this new lesson on math skills related to learning about place value, ordering, adding and subtracting with three digit numbers available now on the Connection site. SMART Math programs are also embedded into the lesson plan to help students have the practice time that is needed in order to master this more complicated concept. Want to create lessons like this one? In order to do that you need to know how to create transparent images. Check out the new Cue Card on this very tech skill below! Also, this is a great example of how CCC! can become your "concept-based curriculum tool." This lesson is completely designed around the concept of 3 digit numbers with a variety of programs offering different levels of skills/practice. If your school/district is implementing differentiation, this technique is for you! This lesson plan is recommended for grades 2 through 5. New Cue Card - How To Make An Image Transparent Do you ever get frustrated at the white box you see around images when you insert them into a SMART Notebook lesson with a colored background or on your webpage? This is because the image does not have a transparent background. You can use many free online editing tools to make the background on most images transparent. I like to use Pixlr because it is an online tool, and I do not have to download anything first. Thanks goodness; that's a pain! For complete directions on how to use Pixlr to create images that have a transparent background, see the attached Cue Card. I make Cue Cards in two formats. One in Power Point in case you want to train others to do this. Power Point just makes projecting easy. The second format is a pdf version that is better for emailing to others. Got an idea for another Cue Card? Just email me and I'll keep creating these so everyone has a set of Cue Cards custom made to help you with your technology integration:) Come the holiday break I'm going to create a new Forum on the Connection site with complete access to all the Cue Cards I've made to date. If you are in a role to train others, you will want to access this info frequently - stay tuned! More iPad Help: Have you ever attempted an app search? It is a miserable experience, unless you already know what you are looking for, you are out of luck! Then you'll want to check out Quixey that powers app searches across multiple platforms (Android, Bada, BlackBerry, Chrome extensions, Chrome web apps, Facebook, Firefox add-ons, IE add-ons, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Symbian, Web, WebOS, Windows, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone). I did a basic search for "free education apps for teaching reading" and this is what resulted; check it out - very cool: http://bit.ly/Quixey. To visit the Quixey home page, go here: www.quixey.com. By the way, I found Quixey by using iPad Curriculum site, which I highlighted in an earlier Weekly Connection. If you haven't visit www.ipadcurriculum.com yet, your are missing out on a lot of great iPad info.http://bit.ly/Quixeywww.quixey.comwww.ipadcurriculum.com 30

31. Tech the Halls - A Tech Project You'll Kids Will Love I love to inspire kids around the year with creative projects that hone their technology skills! Especially when I can point them to success others have had in turning a creative project idea into a performing arts career! Have your students take a digital picture of their house and then use the site, Tech the Halls (by Microsoft) to turn their pic into a holiday extravaganza with lights that blink and decorations that light up to music. Who can forget the NBC story about the Halloween House project in real life in Riverside, CA who actually used computer controlled LED lighting and music to create a world famous experience on You Tube. Go here to view: http://bit.ly/HallweenHouseRock. Or the America's Got Talent 2011 Finalist, iLuminate, who rocked the house to the very same tune. Go here to view: http://bit.ly/sx9hVJ. Now give your students a creative tool found at http://bit.ly/TechDec to build their own lightshow this coming holiday season. (Remember for those of you wanting to use the examples of the Riverside house video or iLuminate video on You Tube with your kids, use KeepVid to download the raw files at home since many schools block You Tube. Put the files on a flash drive to use at school, as an introduction to this fun-filled project.) More New Content from Disney! We are excited that our continued wonderful relationship with Disney Education will allow us to bring you more great STEM content that will be included in your next CCC! content update. There will be five new programs from Disneynature on Earth, Predator and Prey and Migration. Also, more of everyone's favorite Bill Nye! Bill helps pre-algebra and algebra students focus on Solving for X! On the Road Again! Looking forward to presenting at Minnesota TIES on Dec. 13th. If you are attending, I invite you to my session entitled, Media Literacy for the 21st Century Classroom. We begin at 1:20 pm in the Cedar Lake room. From TIES I am onto NY to train for Erie2 BOCES on Dec. 14th at Orchard Park High School in Orchard Park and on Dec. 15th at the LoGuidice Center in Fredonia. I so look forward to these travels and working with wonderful educators across the country. Have a wonderful week everyone, Together We Create a Connected Learning Community, Jo-Ann Attachment: 1. Training Cue Card: How to Make an Image Transparenthttp://bit.ly/HallweenHouseRock http://bit.ly/sx9hVJhttp://bit.ly/TechDec 31